No “Civil Conspiracy” Tort in New York; However Conspiracy-Theory Can Link Participants to Underlying Substantive Tort

The plaintiff sued the defendant alleging the defendant conspired with plaintiff’s former husband to file a false report with the police, resulting in plaintiff’s arrest and criminal prosecution (civil conspiracy).  In determining the motion court should have granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the Second Department wrote:

“Although an independent cause of action for civil conspiracy is not recognized in this State, a plaintiff may plead the existence of a conspiracy in order to connect the actions of the individual defendants with an actionable, underlying tort and establish that those actions were part of a common scheme” … . “The allegation of conspiracy carries no greater burden, but also no less, than to assert adequately common action for a common purpose by common agreement or understanding among a group, from which common responsibility derives” … . Therefore, under New York law, “[i]n order to properly plead a cause of action to recover damages for civil conspiracy, the plaintiff must allege a cognizable tort, coupled with an agreement between the conspirators regarding the tort, and an overt action in furtherance of the agreement” …. “A bare conclusory allegation of conspiracy is usually held insufficient” … . Faulkner v City of Yonkers, 2013 NY Slip Op 02538, 2011-11173, Index No 20679/08, 2nd Dept 4-17-13